


Planting Rash Decisions

by DjDangerLove



Series: Tarlos March Madness [11]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Carlos gives him one anyway, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, He buys plants instead, M/M, TK Strand Needs A Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29984769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DjDangerLove/pseuds/DjDangerLove
Summary: “What’s all this?” Carlos asks, motioning to the bags of gardening soil and light blue flowers waiting to be planted. He’s never known TK to have a green thumb despite how much he cares for the planet, but he supposes it’s possible.Or: TK deals with grief by making rash decisions at the hardware store
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Series: Tarlos March Madness [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2189232
Comments: 10
Kudos: 262





	Planting Rash Decisions

**Author's Note:**

> Tarlos March Madness #11 of 31

The last weekend in March brings a swell of warmer air chasing away the chill of winter for good and an abundance of sunshine. As Carlos pulls into his driveway, he feels the stress of a week of overtime, missed dinners with TK, and two rough domestic calls fall away to almost nothing at the prospect of spending the rest of his Saturday with his boyfriend.

It’s nearly noon as Carlos steps out of the camaro, backpack slung over his shoulder and heading for the front door. His stomach grumbles with a hunger he’s eager to please and hopes that TK is in the mood for delivery from the Chinese place across town. Opening the door, he lets his bag fall to the floor willing to put it away later and calls out for TK when he can’t seem to spot him.

Silence greets him in a way that confuses him, so he calls out again. This time he hears an, “Out here!” from behind the back door. He crosses the kitchen and pulls it open to see TK standing with his hands on his hips and staring down at several things at his feet. 

“Hey,” he calls, stepping out onto the small patio overlooking the yard. TK turns from his spot in the grass with a frown, shorts and t-shirt covered in dirt. Carlos raises an eyebrow and saunters down the porch steps to stand next to him. “What’re you up to?”

“Honestly,” TK sighs, rubbing his hand across his forehead. “I don’t know.” 

Carlos laughs underneath a furrowed brow, puzzled. “What’s all this?” He asks, motioning to the bags of gardening soil and light blue flowers waiting to be planted. He’s never known TK to have a green thumb despite how much he cares for the planet, but he supposes it’s possible.

“I…” TK starts, but his mouth clicks shut with a clench of his teeth and then he waves a dismissive hand at the flowers. “Nothing. Let’s just forget it.” 

TK makes for the back patio, but Carlos grabs him by the wrist to stop him.

“Hey, wait. No. Talk to me,” Carlos urges, hand never leaving the man’s arm. 

TK’s voice is barely above a whisper, the birds in nearby trees nearly drowning him out. “It’s stupid.” Carlos knows it isn’t, knows that TK’s trying to distance himself from the weight of something he feels unable to handle. He pulls him close, hugging him despite the dirt and sweat dampening his shirt, and feels the familiar rumble of anxiety rolling through his boyfriend.

“Something’s wrong,” Carlos realizes aloud and accepts the way TK pushes his face into crook of his neck. He runs a hand up and down his back. “Ty, what’s the matter?”

He feels TK’s damp lashes blink against his skin, “My grandmother died.”

The knee-jerk reaction of sympathy escapes him in sadden, “Oh,” as he holds TK tighter. He’s never heard TK mention his grandmother or his grandparents in general, but it’s obvious that the loss has upset him. “I’m so sorry, TK.”

TK squeezes him for a fraction of second before unfolding himself from Carlos’ hold and wiping at his eyes. “It’s okay. We weren’t…close.”

“Still.”

TK shakes his head. “No, I mean when I was a kid my grandparents were around a lot, but after the divorce it was…messy, but I still saw them on holidays and sometimes I would stay the weekend with them, but uh…” TK takes a minute to breathe, looking anywhere but Carlos. “My addiction…they couldn’t forgive me, I guess. Or so I thought…”

Carlos waits, thinking he’ll find the words to continue but when they don’t he bumps a finger under his chin. TK’s green eyes are hidden behind a wave of blue threatening to crest over and as much as it pains Carlos to see it, he wants TK to know that it’s okay to give in so he doesn’t try to wipe them away.

When TK bites his lip, it trembles between his teeth before he blows out a breath. “All these years that I thought she hated me for the mistakes I made, turns out she never did. She, um…she sent me a birthday card last year, but she didn’t know our Austin address so it never made it until a week ago. I didn’t open it. I wasn’t going to open it but Mom called and said she passed last night and I…”

TK shakes his head, setting free a cascade of tears that has Carlos pulling him back into an embrace. “Baby, I’m so sorry.”

“She always loved me and I resented her my entire life,” TK whimpers into his shoulder and Carlos lets him with a gentle hand to the back of his head. 

“Please don’t punish yourself for not understanding her way of loving you,” Carlos murmurs, pressing a kiss to the crown of his head. “It was her job to make sure you knew that.”

He hears TK collecting himself, forcing the tears to stop and willing his breath to even out, before he steps away from Carlos’ hold. “Okay.”

Carlos knows it’s not as simple as that, but lets TK place the moment on the back burner for now with an, “Okay,” of his own around soft smile. He nudges his head back towards the flowers. “So, what’s with the flowers?”

TK groans with embarrassment turning up the corner of his mouth. “I promise, it really is stupid.”

“Try me,” Carlos encourages. 

TK breathes out with a herculean effort and trots back over to the flowers with a dramatic sweep of his arm. “This was a rash decision at the hardware store.”

Carlos raises an eyebrow, “You’re gonna have to walk me through that one.”

“Well, this morning I got really bored waiting for you to be off work so I thought I could fix the back gate where it got damaged last week in the storm. So, I went to the hardware store to get a couple pieces of wood and while I was waiting for them to cut it to size I started reading this book they had on the counter about plants you can grow here in Texas.”

“And there was this section about Cape Plumbago,” TK keeps rambling without missing a beat, hands waving this way and that, looking more endearing than he has a right to be after crying moments before. “They were a nice blue color and it said they attracted all kinds of butterflies and my grandmother used to say this thing about how butterflies represent all the changes we have to go through to be the person we’re meant to be.”

TK runs a hand through his hair, the slight sweat making the strands stick out in funny directions as he squints against the sun. “I just…I don’t know…it seemed like a good idea at the time. I don’t really know why, but I just wanted to plant them and then I got back here and realized how stupid it was but I’d already bought them and I didn’t even remember the wood for the gate so I’ve just been standing here staring at it.”

Carlos blinks, soaking all of it in, and coming to the realization that he’s committed himself to a life of rash decisions. For a split second, it feels overwhelming, like the world has tilted slightly off its axis. But then, TK bites his lip, looking at Carlos a bit helplessly, and the world rights itself because here’s this man full of anxious energy and rash decisions, and out of all the ones he could have made, some far worse than others, he bought flowers that reminded him of his grandmother and he just needs help making sense of it all. 

Reaching out, he takes TK’s hand in his, not minding the clammy feeling of his skin or the way his fingers tremble in between his own, and squeezes the promise of always helping TK make sense of every rash decision he makes for the rest of his life.

“Come on, Tiger,” he says, tugging on the hand in his and kneeling down in the grass. “Let’s plant these flowers.”

“Carlos,” TK whines, but follows suit until they are shoulder to shoulder hunched over sky-blue flowers and potting soil. “We don’t have to. I told you, it’s dumb. Crazy, even.”

“It isn’t,” he assures. “It’s just your way of grieving. Besides, the yard could use some color.”

In honest truth, Carlos has never once thought about planting flowers or doing any particular landscaping in the yard. He prefers the nice, clean cut grass and the open space, but he doesn’t mind sacrificing a bit of it for this. 

“You’re too good to me,” TK says before kissing Carlos’ cheek and reaching for the planting tools. 

“No such thing, baby,” Carlos counters and delights in the content silence that falls between them as they begin working. 

Carlos is almost mesmerized by the way TK’s hands begin to calm as they work through the soil, the way his breaths even out as he gently removes the flowers from their crate and places them in their designated spots. He knows these flowers will thrive under TK’s care, but the thought of TK finding solace in them settles warmly over his heart. 

It’s why he decides right then and there that someday when they own a bigger yard with enough grass to mow with a riding mower and a huge tree that will make them fight in the fall about whose turn it is to rake the leaves, he’s going to spend the first weekend planting a huge garden with all kinds of flowers, maybe even some herbs and vegetables, just so that TK will always have this.

For now though, if Carlos steps out onto the back patio on the mornings he wakes up way before TK just to catch a glimpse of the butterflies fluttering around the Cape Plumbago, no one has to know. And if it reminds him about all of the big life changes he hopes to make with TK, well…he might have to talk to him about that some day soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos are appreciated. Comments are food.  
> Come find me on tumblr @ DjDangerLove
> 
> Is a Tarlos alternate meeting au an acceptable post for March Madness if they still end up at Carlos' house?


End file.
